What was the religion in Rome before christianity?
The Romans had a story of Romulas and Remus, two boys who were abandoned by their mother, and were raised by a female wolf. Roman legend says these two grew to be men and founded Rome. Later, the Romans adopted the Greek gods, and made it their own religion, with a smattering of religions from other corners of the empire. For a time, Christianity was tolerated. Nero wanted to build Rome out of gold, but there was a slum in the way (where the Christians and Jews lived), so he had it burned down. The fire got out of control and took half of Rome with it. He then used Christians and Jews as scapegoats (sorry, early Hebrew term), and started to slaughter them.
The official state religion was the worship of the Roman gods, in particular Jupiter, Mars and Venus, and emperor worship, in particular Julius Caesar. However, there were many religions in Rome. Among common Romans Hercules was extremely popular. Then there were Jews, Mithraists, worshippers of Isis and Osiris, Orpheists, worshippers of Serapis (a Greek/Egyptian fusion god who was also called “Christ”), etc etc. There was much more religious freedom in Rome before the rise of Christianity than afterwards. Christians were persecuted because they refused to worship the emperor. Interestingly they were often accused of atheism. Other religions (except perhaps Judaism) had less problems with paying lip service to the emperor and worshiping their own gods at home or in their more or less secret temples.
